Ahhotep II | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Queen consort of Egypt Great Royal Wife | ||||
Burial | Thebes? | |||
Spouse | Kamose (likely) | |||
Issue | Sitkamose | |||
Egyptian name | ||||
Dynasty | 17th Dynasty | |||
Religion | Ancient Egyptian religion |
Ahhotep II was an ancient Egyptian queen, and likely the Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Kamose. [1]
The naming / numbering by Egyptologists of the queens named Ahhotep has changed during the years.
During the late nineteenth century, Egyptologists thought that Ahhotep I was the wife of Seqenenre Tao. The coffins of Deir el-Bahari and Dra' Abu el-Naga' were both thought by some experts to be hers. Also, Ahhotep II was thought to be the wife of Amenhotep I as the coffin from the Deir el-Bahari cache was considered to belong to a queen called Ahhotep II.
During the 1970s, it was noted that the Deir el-Bahari coffin bears the title King's Mother yet Amenhotep I had no son. Therefore, the title must refer to the mother of Ahmose I. In 1982, Robins suggested that Ahhotep I was the occupant of the gilded coffin from Dra' Abu el-Naga'. Ahhotep II is the queen mentioned on the Deir el-Bahari coffin and Ahhotep III is the Queen mentioned on the statue of a prince Ahmose. [2]
Following Dodson and Hilton (2004), it is now considered that Ahhotep I was the wife of Seqenenre Tao and the mother of Ahmose I. Ahhotep II is now regarded as the queen identified from the gilded coffin found at Dra' Abu el-Naga' and, therefore, possibly a wife of Kamose. It is no longer considered that there was a queen called Ahhotep III. [3]
This interpretation by Dodson and Hilton has been used in this article.
Ahhotep II is thought to be the chief wife of Kamose and possibly the mother of Queen Ahmose-Sitkamose. It is possible but unlikely that Ahhotep II is identical to a queen known as Ahhotep I. If so, she may have been married to Seqenenre Tao instead.
The title of King's Mother is only found on the coffin from Deir el Bahari and not on the funerary equipment from Dra' Abu el-Naga'. It could be argued that Ahhotep II was a royal wife but never the mother of a pharaoh, and hence not the same person as Ahhotep I. [2]
Ahhotep II was buried in Dra' Abu el-Naga' and rediscovered in February 1859 by workmen employed by Auguste Mariette. The tomb contained her mummy (destroyed in 1859) and gold and silver jewelry. An inscribed ceremonial axe blade made of copper, gold, electrum and wood was decorated with a Minoan style griffin. Three golden flies were included and were awards usually given to people who served and acquitted themselves well in the army. A few items bore the name of Kamose, but more were inscribed with the name of Ahmose I. [4]
The Dra' Abu el-Naga' coffin and the items associated with it all have inscriptions using an early form of the Iah glyph. The representation of the hieroglyph changed between years 18 and 22 of Ahmose I. The use of the early form of Iah suggests that Queen Ahhotep II died sometime before year 20 of Ahmose I. This suggests that this queen is not Ahhotep, mother of Ahmose, because that queen appears on a stela dated to Amenhotep I and possibly survived into the reign of Thutmose I. [2]
The tomb of queen Ahhotep II at Dra' Abu el-Naga' contained two gold and silver boats--made by pharaoh Ahmose I. [5]
An alternative interpretation has been developed by Ann Macy Roth. [2] In this interpretation, the pharaoh Seqenenre Tao had three queen consorts:
Kamose married his sister Ahhotep II and were then the parents of Ahmose I, Ahmose-Nefertari and Ahmose-Sitkamose.
Ahmose I was a pharaoh and founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt in the New Kingdom of Egypt, the era in which ancient Egypt achieved the peak of its power. His reign is usually dated to the mid-16th century BC at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age.
Ahmose was an Ancient Egyptian queen in the Eighteenth Dynasty. She was the Great Royal Wife of the dynasty's third pharaoh, Thutmose I, and the mother of the queen and pharaoh Hatshepsut. Her name means "Born of the Moon".
Amenhotep I or Amenophis I, was the second Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt. His reign is generally dated from 1526 to 1506 BC.
Ahmose is an Ancient Egyptian name meaning "The Moon is born" or "Child of the Moon". It was a very popular name in the beginning of the eighteenth dynasty.
Ahmose-Nefertari was the first Great Royal Wife of the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt. She was a daughter of Seqenenre Tao and Ahhotep I, and royal sister and wife to Ahmose I. Her son Amenhotep I became pharaoh and she may have served as his regent when he was young. Ahmose-Nefertari was deified after her death.
The necropolis of Draʻ Abu el-Naga' is located on the West Bank of the Nile at Thebes, Egypt, just by the entrance of the dry bay that leads up to Deir el-Bahari and north of the necropolis of el-Assasif. The necropolis is located near the Valley of the Kings.
Seqenenre Tao ruled over the last of the local kingdoms of the Theban region of Egypt in the Seventeenth Dynasty during the Second Intermediate Period.
Ahmose-Meritamun was a Queen of Egypt during the early Eighteenth Dynasty. She was both the older sister and the wife of Pharaoh Amenhotep I. She died fairly young and was buried in tomb TT358 in Deir el-Bahari.
Ahhotep I was an ancient Egyptian queen who lived c. 1560–1530 BCE, during the end of the Seventeenth Dynasty and beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Her titles include King's Daughter, King's Sister, Great (Royal) Wife, She who is joined to the White Crown, and King's Mother. She was the daughter of Queen Tetisheri and Pharaoh Senakhtenre Ahmose, and was probably the sister, as well as the queen consort, of Pharaoh Seqenenre Tao.
Ahmose-Sitamun or just Sitamun was a princess of the early Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt.
Mutnofret, also rendered as Mutneferet or Mutnefert, was a queen during the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. She was a secondary wife of Thutmose I and the mother of his successor Thutmose II; Thutmose I's chief wife, however, was his sister Queen Ahmose, the mother of Hatshepsut.
Ahmose-Sapair was a prince of the late Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt.
Ahmose-Inhapy or Ahmose-Inhapi was a princess and queen of the late 17th Dynasty and early 18th Dynasty.
Sitdjehuti was a princess and queen of the late Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt. She was a daughter of Pharaoh Senakhtenre Ahmose and Queen Tetisheri. She was the wife of her brother Seqenenre Tao and was the mother of Princess Ahmose.
Ahmose-Nebetta was an Egyptian princess during the late Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt in the late Second Intermediate Period. She was probably the daughter of Seqenenre Tao and Queen Ahhotep I. She was the sister of Pharaoh Ahmose I of who was the founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty.
Ahmose-Sitkamose, sometimes appearing as simply Sitkamose was a princess during the late 17th-early 18th Dynasties of Egypt.
The Theban tomb TT12 is located in Dra' Abu el-Naga', part of the Theban Necropolis, on the west bank of the Nile, opposite to Luxor. It is the burial place of the ancient Egyptian Hery, who was Overseer of the Granary of the King's Mother Ahhotep, during the reigns of Seqenenre Tao II to Amenhotep I.
Ramose was an ancient Egyptian prince of the Eighteenth Dynasty; probably the son of Pharaoh Ahmose I.
Meritamen, also spelled Meritamun, Merytamen, Meryetamen is an ancient Egyptian female name. Its male counterpart is Meryamen or Meryamun.
The Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt is classified as the first dynasty of the New Kingdom of Egypt, the era in which ancient Egypt achieved the peak of its power. The Eighteenth Dynasty spanned the period from 1550/1549 to 1292 BC. This dynasty is also known as the Thutmoside Dynasty) for the four pharaohs named Thutmose.